Interconnects are used between components and devices on printed circuit boards (PCBs) allowing components and devices to communicate with each other as part of a larger computer system. PCBs are often stacked together on edge as blades assembled into a computer chassis and electrically connected to other blades, switches, etc through a backplane to provide a system flexibility and greater density within a limited space.
Interconnects can allow devices in a computer system to communicate with each other using electrical or optical signals. Often high speed electrical and optical interconnects use bulky and expensive cabling. Interconnect assemblies can be used to couple optical fibers together so that light from a bundle of one or more fibers in one end of the connector assembly will pass through the connector assembly to fibers or a device connected to the other end of the connector assembly. Optical connector assemblies typically contain one or more ferrule components which precisely position individual optical fibers such that, when two connector assemblies are mated, the optical fibers contained therein will be precisely located with respect to one another, and capable of efficiently transferring optical energy through the mated pairs of optical fibers in each connector assembly
For efficient transfer of optical energy, optical fibers in each ferrule part are typically located with a true position accuracy of less than 5 um for multi-mode fiber and 1 um or less for single mode fiber. In addition to precise positioning of the optical fibers, use of multi-fiber connector assemblies also typically involves highly precise location of features used to position two connector assemblies with respect to each other. As a result, molding or machining of locating features into the ferrules in the number and size to hold multiple optical fibers and associated external locating features can be difficult. The complexities and costs of assembly and manufacture of existing interconnect assemblies can increase the cost of integration of optical components into computing technologies.